Accountant label foe peeiodicals



CGUNTANT LABEL FOR .PERIODIGAL &0.

R. DICK.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

Patented 001'.. 4, 1859.

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tIwIT FICE.

ROBERT DICK, OF TORONTO, CANADA.

ACCOUNTANT-LABEL FOR PERIODICALS, 85C.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,635, dated October 4;, 1859.

.To all whom it may concern:

record of all transactions regularly posted,

.Be it known that I, Renner Dion, of the with day and date, according to the currentclty `of Toronto and Province of Canada, l of business; while the impression just taken minister, have invented a practical method of keeping accounts current in printed form and of rendering or transmitting them with great rapidity by the aid of a very simple machine adapted to this and numerous other purposes and embraced in this my invention, the whole to be known as or called Dicks accountant and dispatch patent; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying` drawings, forming a part of this specification.

The names and the addresses of all persons whose accounts it is desired thus to keep, are first carefully set up in printers type, in regular columns or otherwise, and in connection with each name, a precise statement of the individuals account, in figures, symbols, dates or numbers; used either separately or in combination; or, whatever else will represent'the extent to which each individual is debtor or creditor. From the type thus carefully and fully set in order, an impression is taken on any suitable substance, which represents in printed form the accounts as set in type. On this impression placed as folio No. l in a fitly-prepared skeleton book, to be carefully preserved, the accountant enters, with care and precision, all the alterations occurring in the state of the accounts up to time fixed for re-adjusting the type, which is kept standing in form ready for the incorporation of new or recent. transactions at any moment. Near the type, thus always ready, is placed the impression last given to the accountant, encumbered with all the postings of the current business transactions-some entered on the printed lines, some between them, and others (requiring more room) in the margin, connected by reference figures or symbols. Column by column the type is now made to incorporate all these entries, till they truthfully represent the state of every account in which there has been a transaction altering it-s aspect in any manner; leaving all the others precisely as they w'ere. From the type as often as it is thus re-adjusted, the accountant receives an impression which he fastens in his skeleton book, after the last one so fastened, to be used as it was; so that the whole of these printed sheets, taken together, as so connected, and so used, embody a systematic presents the presentstate of every account; and which by exhibiting a thousand of them on a single page brings all entries and balances so clearly and so transparently to the surface, as to palsy the arm that would dare to falsify an entry. Especially is this true, where, as in banking institutions, the president and directors are every evening furnished each with a printed copy of the balances of all the accounts for examination; so printed, that the sheet itself exhibits at a glance, every particular account that has changed aspects that day. This arresting of peculation, through the impossibility of burying false entries in the labyrinths of huge ledgers, is rendered still more complete and certain by the facility and rapidity wherewith every one interested can have the balance of his account sent to him, levery week if need be, by the appliances of my invention. For, as often as the type are readjusted, an impression may be taken from them in addition to the one required for the skeleton book, (as represented by Figure 2 on the drawings), its columns cut apart, on the red line E, and the head of each succeeding column gummed to the lower extremity of that preceding it, till the whole forms one continuous web. This web is now reeled, (like the paper web of the telegraph operator,) into the simple machine already mentioned as a component part of this invention, by which the back of the w'eb of names is rendered adhesive, the names and the accounts separated, and fastened on cards and envelops, or on circulars and envelopsthe one receiving the account and the other the address of the party to whom it is to be sent: or, as in the case of newspaper accounts, the accounts may be stamped on the papers along with the address. Commencing at the top of a pile of folded papers, one boy will address them as fast as it is possible for another to snatch each one in succession from the heap. Operating thus, the two will address four thousand papers an hour; and as this is work which must be done, the sending of the account weekly or daily, as the case may be, consumes in reality no time whatever. To understand the contrivances of the machine whereby this is accomplished, let A, inthe accompanying drawing hereto attached, represent an apron movement of four rollers-one, close to the cutter stamps, in front of the machine; the second over the front edge of the fiuid vessel, over which the apron when in motion turns down into the fluidthe third roller, made of lead, is simply suspended in the lower fold of the apron, thus giving it the requisite tension, while it is kept from touching the bottom of the fiuid vessel, by the fourth roller, which is above the second, and so placed as to effect the further purpose of keeping the surfaces of the apron apart, that its motion may not b-e impeded.

The compartment marked B, is the vessel into which the fiuid is poured, which renders the back of web of names adhesive, and through which the apron revolves.

C, is the compartment into which the web of accountant labels is first reeled; and D,V

the cutter and stamps combined, formed of two pieces of cast steel. The first taken from a quarter inch bar is fashioned into the limb of a shear, and with its forward upper edge formed for cutting, is firmly fastened to the front of the machine. The second limb, is formed of a half inch or five eighths bar, so fitted and screwed to the first limb, as to form with it a cutting shear; while it still retains its shape as a piece of a square bar of steel, the inner lower corner of which is made to cut and the bottom to stamp at every stroke. For when the web of accountant labels is reeled into t-he machine, and all things in readiness, the back of the end of the web being placed on the apron as it rises out of the fiuiol vessel, fully saturated, it necessarily adheres to it, and hence moves forward with it till it reaches the front of the instrument, where the apron turning suddenly round a small'quarter inch roller parts company with the paper web, it being too stiff to follow th-e apron in this sudden turn, hence it goes 0E at a tangent, and falls on the stationary limb of the cutter. Over this, as soon as it has passed the distance desired, be it the breadth of one printed line or more; the second limb of the cutter, till now upheld by the right hand or by a spring attached, is brought suddenly down upon the printed line or lines projecting over the stationary limb, (which now rests on the article to be labeled and, on the precise spot, keeping the label up about a quarter of an inch from its bed,) and so suddenly that the atmospheric air between the low'er face of the label and its bed, presses the label up against the fiat bottom of the descending cutter stamp, so that the label comes fiat upon its bed, and is pressed down upon it by the same stroke which cut it off from the web. While the gum on its back borrowed from the apron, soon makes it a fixture, fitted to carry that whereon it lies, to the ends of the earth, and to tell faithfully whatever facts it may have in charge.

The machine thus attempted to be described, may be operated in many w'ays, such as bearing it loosely on the arm-connecting it with fixed slides horizontal or perpendicular, coupled with springs or weights-supplying it with articles to be labeled by the aid of apron movements, elevators or other mechanical equivalents :-gearing it so as to make the rising of the cutter stamp project the labels, so as to fit the machine to be operated by one hand, or by machinery.

What I claim as my invention, is-

'Ihe contrivance of keeping accounts current in printed form, by the use of printers type, or their equivalents, kept so arranged as to admit readily of all the re-adjustments which the current of business may require, in manner substantially as set forth. Based on this primary invention, I also claim the device of rendering or transmitting accounts thus, or substantially thus kept in type, by sending printed impressions taken therefrom, though the particular form of sending may not be mine: while at the same time, I claim in the broadest and fullest sense, the special mode and form herein set forth, by the use of the machine herein described as constituted by the combination of fluid vessel, reel, apron movement, and cutter stamp; which machine I also claim, with all the modes indicated for operating the same, and in connection with the recited claim, I thus formally make, I also claim all other means and appliances substantially the same as those herein claimed, or intended to be claimed.

Washington, D. C., December 14th, 1858.

ROBERT DICK.

Signed in presence of' I. L. BALL, WM. L. N. SMALLWooD. 

